Idaho: Deadline by Chris Crutcher

How can a pint-sized, smart-ass eighteen-year-old make his mark on the world from Nowheresville, Idaho—especially when he only has one year left to do it? When Ben Wolf learns his senior year of high school will be his last year, period, he is determined to go out in a blaze of glory.

That means not letting anyone know about his diagnosis. It means trying out for the football team. It means giving his close-minded civics teacher a daily migraine. It means going for the amazingly perfect, fascinating Dallas Suzuki.

But living with a secret isn't easy . . . What will Ben do when he realizes he isn't the only person who's keeping one?

It is time for Idaho on the Reading Across America challenge. Honestly, I have mixed feelings on the book. With these feelings I decided to scope out Goodreads for some reviews to see what other readers thought. On the most part, readers enjoyed the book, but there were some mixed reviews as well.

Some of the reviews said the book was geared too much towards teenage boys or that the book was too preachy. I agree that the book is geared pretty heavily towards boys as the football scenes were detailed and just a little too lengthy. What I don’t understand is why that is a bad thing? The reviewer clearly meant that to be a negative point of the book.  Presently, most fiction in the young adult genre is written for teenage girls. Twilight, Matched series, and paranormal romances in general are very much geared towards teenage girls. Why is a book geared towards boys bad? That being said as a female, Deadline really didn’t feel like it worked for me on a personal reading level.

BUT, I am not reading these books just for personal enjoyment. This is to become more familiar and knowledgeable with young adult reads.  You know, be a better children’s librarian! This will require to read things that I may not personally relate to or enjoy.  The best thing I think I could do to continue this book’s particular discussion is to do a good and bad list.

Good:

• Main character, Ben Wolf, had great development and is a protagonist you could really go for. His thought process dealing with death and his change of heart in regards to his brother, Cody, and crush, Dallas Suzuki. Ben is one that readers will cheer for. A diminutive, smart ass 18 year old with nothing to lose? Dangerously awesome sauce.
• Relatability. If I were faced with the situation that is presented to Ben, I would probably have a similar sentiment.  Live my life to the fullest extent? Check. Confess my love for my crush? Check. Find a way to leave my legacy? Check.  This situation is not pleasant of course, but a character being relatable despite imminent death is pretty impressive.
• The writing.  Funny and witty, perfect voice of our smart ass hero!

Bad:

• Secondary characters were rather flat. The town drunk, Rudy McCoy, was the closest to being well developed, but he ended up just being disturbing instead.  The brother, Cody, seemed a little too cool about his brother dying.  In fact, besides Dallas and his mother, I think everyone seemed a little too cool about Ben dying.  
• The football talk did seem a little overdone. Most of the first half of the book seemed obsessed with discussing football strategy and giving play-by-plays of the big game. I get it Crutcher, you love your sports and athletic short stories, but those shouldn’t take up most of the book, when there is so much more to discuss.
• Definitely preachy in some respects. This was made apparent when Ben combated his teacher. Now I am not saying the teacher was in the right, in fact the teacher was portrayed as a real D-Bag. Racism and bigorty, sadly enough, are still relevant to current events, but Malcolm X is not. What's sad is that there are other examples of bigorty that are far more current. That being said, the whole Malcolm X plot just felt like it was getting out of hand.
• The ending felt rushed. Even though Dallas clearly had issues with Ben. She just seemed to magically resolve her issues to say good bye.  It just felt like everything else was secondary to the plot after football season.

Well that is 12 down, 38 more to go!

Audiobook Awesomeness: Persuasion and Wuthering Heights

Ah 18^th Century classics. Most students will come across these authors in their academic tenure as both authors have cult followings as well as haters. I love Jane Austen’s works, but Wuthering Heights always caused me problems. I would try to read it (and have tried several times), but for some reason about 30 pages into it I could not continue. If you haven’t yet, please check out my post on chronic non-finishing.

Now in terms of an audiobook, I loved listening to both these classics. The narrators did an excellent job with the expressions, especially Wuthering Heights. Her version of Heathcliff was evil and ferocious and I loved it. I found myself laughing at little jokes and appalled by Catherine and Heathcliff’s antics.

I am happy that I have accomplished the story of Wuthering Heights, but I do not see the obsession. I took a class titled “Victorian Couples” my freshman year of college and many of my colleagues loved the Brontes. They always raved about their love story. I can now officially say...I don't understand why. Heathcliff and Catherine are awful people and pretty much destroy everyone’s lives around them. The embarrassing moments of Heathcliff’s childhood and constant humiliation would lead him to do the crazy, twisted things he did understandably. However, his revenge just had no end.  At some point he just needed to build a bridge and get over it. Everyone who had ruined Heathcliff’s childhood died and he still continued his d-bag ways.

On to Persuasion. The audiobook was done quite well, though I think I would have preferred a female narrator. For some reason a lady narrator does a better job at male voices, whereas the male narrator of Persuasion sounded hilarious doing female characters. If you ever get a chance, you all should listen to the Harry Potter series on audiobook. Jim Dale's Hermione is quite laughable. 

I feel that audiobooks can assist reluctant readers, especially teens. I know I said this in my previous Audiobook Awesomeness post.  This can easily be connected with teens and classics. Let’s face it, most teens (again probably none of us who read this blog) can’t stand the books our English teachers force us to read in school. Kafka was my nemesis and I still cannot tell you the point of Heart of Darkness. Suck it Conrad! Perhaps my readings of these classics would have been better if I could have listened to them as audiobooks.

If time permits, I would love to explore graphic novels as a medium for academic study. Some of us need more visual stimulation and graphic novels can provide a complex storyline and keep teens engaged.

Preschool Storytime: It’s the Final Countdown!

I know two posts in one day, what’s going on here?! I had my storytime this week and I went with the theme of counting. Just to jump ahead, this was the most successful storytime I have ever had. Kids friggin love counting. If you are ever stuck with coming up with a theme, just do numbers. I was afraid the kids would get so sick if numbers by the end, but no problem at all. They were quiet and attentive as well as participatory in my songs. Here is the guide I used for my storytime!

Opening Motion: Inside the Space Shuttle (squat down to the ground)

                Just enough room (squeeze self closer)

                Here comes the countdown

                5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (hold up fingers and kids count with you) 
                …ZOOM (jump straight up)
This was a lot of fun to do. It was a great way to start off the counting storytime and everyone loved shooting up into the air.

Book: Ten in the Bed

This book was fun to read, especially if you know the song. The kids thought the different animal characters were a little strange. When the book says "The ballerina fell out of the bed" they all had confused looks. That being said, they were reading with me and were perfectly attentive.

Flannel board: 5 green and speckled frogs

Kids love counting. I will say it again; LOVE counting. The board was a lot of fun to use, so I am glad they enjoyed it. 

Book: One Duck Stuck

This book was rather long, but the kids enjoyed it. 

Song: This old man (1-5)

Easy Peezy, the kids did this one with me and had no problems learning the motions. I kept to just doing 1-5 as 1-10 is just too long for some of the kids.

Motion: 5 Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree

The winner of the session was this song. The kids LOVED snatching the monkey out of the tree. They were clapping throughout the rest of storytime.

Book: Big Fat Hen

I love this book and I used it as a way to lead into actually singing 1,2 Buckle My Shoe. I told the children to guess what song we would be doing next. They got it right away. Perfectly done!

Song: 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe with actions

The book was a perfect lead in to this song.

Movie: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 (6 mins.)

All I had to ask was, “Has anyone heard of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom?” and the kids watched the whole thing no problems. In fact they were mad when they went to our ABC-123 shelf and neither book was there. 

My next storytime is in two weeks and it will be a special one. I can't wait to tell you guys all about it! Be on the look out for my post on Audiobook Awesomeness in the next few days.

Ryn the Librarian and the Case of the Chronic Non-Finisher

Hello everyone. I know it has been awhile since I wrote about a book I read, but I have my crazy reasons. I had a book club book to read and host as well as other chores that needed care.  By this date, I wanted to have finished Hawaii in the Reading Across America in YA Challenge, but it is just not going to happen. I guess I should just come out and say that I am a (saw this word in an article somewhere) chronic non-finisher. That sewing project I started back in December, yeah that never happened.  My goal to take more photography classes most certainly did not happen. Now, where my chronic non-finishing ways tend to appear the most is in reading.

I started the selection for Hawaii, Under the Blood Red Sun, when I got back from California in mid-April. For some reason, I just could not get through it. I am still only 40 pages into it and that took several tries.

This is not to say that the book is awful, in fact, it would be perfect in many aspects. If you are an elementary or middle school teacher, this would be a great historical fiction pairing during a World War II lesson.  This novel is inspirational and gives an accurate account of Japanese-American prejudices and trials in America after Pearl Harbor. The writing is done well and so far the characters are dynamic and realistic. It's just not my kind of read and therefore I am having problems with engagement. I have included a synopsis from Amazon.com below.

Tomi was born in Hawaii. His grandfather and parents were born in Japan, and came to America to escape poverty.

World War II seems far away from Tomi and his friends, who are too busy playing ball on their eighth-grade team, the Rats.

But then Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, and the United States declares war on Japan. Japanese men are rounded up, and Tomi’s father and grandfather are arrested. It’s a terrifying time to be Japanese in America. But one thing doesn’t change: the loyalty of Tomi’s buddies, the Rats.

I do not know why I could not finish this book, but at some point I have to move on to something else. My problem is patience. I would make a horrible Jedi, as I have no friggin patience.  This is definitely the issue right now as I know Divergent is coming up for the Illinois selection and I just want to get to it. Everyone has talked about how wonderful that book is and I just want to read it!

I know I should give this book more of my time, but I really need to move on. It’s just not keeping me engaged at the moment. Well that’s ok, the goal of this challenge was to continue my study and knowledge of YA literature. I cannot always be perfect, but there are 39 more books to go!